Page 63 of Just the Pool Boy at Vampire Mansion

All three of them looked to me, as though I had the answers. Why did everyone keep doing that?

“What were those things?” Theo asked.

I puffed out a sigh and straightened, dabbing at my face to dry it.

Leander cracked the shotgun, removed the rounds and tucked them into his pocket. “Ask the gatekeeper.” He lifted his gaze and those dark vampire eyes fixed on me. “It is, after all, what I hired him for.”

CHAPTER 15

Trying to get the Witherbornes into one room was like trying to herd dripping wet, angry cats. There was a whole lot of complaining from Bentley, clucking and tutting from Geraldine, and silence from Leander, who sat in one of the grand chairs and waited for his family to stop bickering. Leander wore an age-old exhaustion on his bones, like an old suit that had grown tired with everyone and everything.

Theo, after arguing a family meeting was a terrible idea, waited patiently off to one side, watching the meeting unfold from his position propped against the wall.

“Who’s the girl?” Bentley asked, from his sprawled position on the couch, posed there like one of those long body cushions.

“Fleur lives in the pool house now, dear,” Geraldine muttered. She sat at the dining table, examining her glossy pink nails. “Do keep up.”

“Since when?”

“Since the pool gave her up,” Leander said, his voice low and monotone.

“Which I am only now learning about. And also, there are things in the pool that tried to grab Theo?” Bentley tutted again. “What a shame they didn’t succeed.”

“You told me that nobody kills Theo but you,” I blurted. “Don’t you care?”

Bentley narrowed his eyes. “Why are you in a family meeting anyway? I said you were trouble, and here we are. Again. Who called this meeting? I have places to be and none of this concerns me.” He moved to stand.

“Did you organize those creatures?” I asked him.

He bared his fangs in a sneer and turned his head toward Geraldine. “Mother, why am I answering to the help?”

“Sit down,” Leander said, calmly, but the very act of his father speaking kept Bentley on the couch. “I called this meeting for Owen, as it has become quite clear we have a threat that needs addressing, and as wonderful as our family is, working together is not something we do particularly well. Owen has offered to help.”

Owen had?

Bentley rolled his eyes. “Ugh, is this going to take long?”

“Go ahead, Owen,” Leander said.

The meeting had been my idea, but as nobody was going to listen to me, I’d asked Leander to help with that. And now they were here. Four vampires, and one Fleur, eagerly watching all this from a second couch. With her legs crossed, she watched the meeting with wide eyes, engrossed in the Witherborne family drama.

Finally, everyone was settled and listening. And this was my big moment to shine. And hopefully get some answers.

“Well . . .” I began. “Clearly, your pool is different.”

“It was fine before you got here,” Bentley grumbled.

“Quiet, Bentley!” Geraldine snapped. “Let the pool boy speak so we can all get back to more important things.”

“I suspect Jay stumbled onto the truth or was investigating it,” I said, looking at each of them for a reaction. They didn’t give one. “He would have seen the same strange chemical signatures that I’ve seen and gone looking for answers.”

“And got himself killed,” Theo said, clearly aimed at me and my decision to follow Jay’s metaphorical footsteps next door.

“Ugh, the Briars,” Bentley said, playing with a thread on his shirt cuff. “They seem harmless enough. Creepy, but what are they going to do to us?”

I looked at Geraldine and found her already staring at me. “You know, don’t you.”

She huffed. “I know little, but I know they’re not harmless. They’ve been stalking this family for over twenty years. Always popping up nearby but never too close.”